Forget it.
Mayuri hovered at an altitude of around twenty meters and glanced down with her rose-red eyes.
On the slope, Waver Velvet lay curled up, still unconscious.
The impulsive idiot who had stolen his teacher Kayneth's holy relic and come to Fuyuki to participate in the Holy Grail War.
He was also the future Lord El-Melloi II.
The vessel for the Heroic Spirit Zhuge Liang.
The five-star support Servant she had used most often in FGO in her previous life.
Images of countless late nights spent grinding events flashed through Mayuri's mind.
When she ran out of QP and farmed doors, she used Zhuge Liang.
When she ran short of materials and farmed free quests, she used Zhuge Liang.
When she pulled a new card and farmed embers to level it, she still used Zhuge Liang.
A fifty-percent charge skill paired with a Kaleidoscope Craft Essence for three-turn farming-how much overtime had that man in the dark green suit worked in her Chaldea? She had long since lost count.
For all the overtime you helped me put in during my previous life.
Mayuri turned around and beat her four wings.
I'll pretend I didn't see you.
The wind swept beneath her feet. Waver's unconscious figure soon became a tiny speck in the night, then disappeared from view.
Mayuri flew toward downtown Fuyuki City with Presence Concealment partially active.
The November wind blew in from the sea, carrying a salty tang.
The Tohsaka Residence was to the northwest, still over ten kilometers away in a straight line. At this speed, she would reach it in about another three minutes.
Mayuri closed her eyes and let the wind whip past her face.
Tonight had taken quite a toll.
Tokiomi Tohsaka had replenished her magical energy with gems, so her reserves had not dropped much, but gems could not remedy mental fatigue.
After returning, she would report the results to her Master first, then get a night's sleep.
Just then, something caught up from behind.
Directly behind her, about two kilometers away.
A fast-moving object was approaching her at an abnormally high speed.
By the time Mayuri noticed it, it had already closed to within a kilometer.
Mayuri looked back.
A golden flying vessel appeared in the night sky.
Its hull was gold, with emerald wing surfaces extending from either side and translucent patterns of magical light flowing along their edges.
Its overall design looked ancient, yet carried something that did not belong to this era.
A golden throne stood at the center of the vessel.
Young Gilgamesh sat upon it with one leg crossed over the other, his crimson eyes half-lidded and his golden hair blown back by the wind.
Vimana.
The divine flying vessel of ancient Indian mythology, one of the Noble Phantasms in King Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon.
The vessel was faster than a modern jet fighter.
It took only a few seconds to catch up from behind as Mayuri flew at cruising speed.
Then it slowed down about a hundred and fifty meters behind her, matching her direction and speed.
Mayuri's expression turned somewhat peculiar.
She did not want to deal with him right now.
She had fought enough tonight.
Whether Kid Gil had caught up to chat, provoke her, challenge her to a fight, or invite her out for a late-night snack, she wanted nothing to do with him.
Mayuri raised her right hand and pointed at Vimana behind her.
Thunder Sanctuary received the command.
The arcs of electricity across the black sphere's surface instantly grew denser. A bolt of crimson-gold lightning shot from its side, streaking across the night sky straight toward Vimana's hull.
Shoot it down first. Everything else can wait.
Just as the crimson-gold lightning was about to strike Vimana, golden ripples unfolded off the vessel's port side.
A shield emerged from within.
It was circular, about a meter in diameter, its face covered in ancient inscriptions she could not read.
Its material lay somewhere between bronze and gold, with a very aged metallic luster.
The shield hovered outside Vimana's port side, facing the lightning head-on.
The crimson-gold lightning struck its face.
The inscriptions on the shield lit up, releasing a pale blue barrier of magical energy.
The lightning was absorbed, dispersed, and neutralized by the barrier in a very brief process.
The shield blocked the blow.
The price was equally straightforward.
Every inscription on its face burned away. After the light died, dozens of cracks spread through the shield itself, and it shattered into golden motes that scattered into the night wind.
One defensive Noble Phantasm had been destroyed.
Vimana was unharmed.
Kid Gil shifted his posture on the throne.
He lowered his crossed leg.
His crimson eyes opened and turned toward Mayuri.
His treasure had been destroyed.
Even in his younger form, Gilgamesh would not pretend something like this had never happened.
Golden ripples unfolded off Vimana's starboard side.
This time, what emerged was not a shield.
It was a spear.
Its shaft was over two meters long and pitch-black throughout, with a golden spearhead.
The moment the weapon appeared, even the surrounding air shuddered.
Hector's Spear.
The favored spear of Hector, the warrior of Troy.
Gilgamesh had added it to the Gate of Babylon on the logic that the originals of all the world's treasures belonged to him.
Mayuri sensed danger the very second the spear emerged.
It was unmistakable.
The Spirit Origin fluctuations from the spear exceeded B-rank.
Her Astral Dress could nullify attacks below B-rank and greatly reduce those above B-rank, but it could not grant complete immunity.
The spear's fluctuations were not merely above B-rank.
It probably also carried a sure-hit or piercing effect.
Mayuri's intuition told her that this thing had a chance of breaching her Astral Dress's defenses and injuring her directly.
Mayuri issued a command.
Thunder Sanctuary materialized high in the sky and moved directly in front of Mayuri, hovering in its black spherical form between her and Vimana.
At the same moment, Hector's Spear shot out of the golden ripples.
In the Gate of Babylon's launching mechanism, the ripples themselves served as the launch ports.
The instant the spear sprang from the golden ripples, it already had an initial velocity far beyond any human throw.
The golden spearhead trailed a deep crimson streak through the night sky, cutting through the cold air three hundred meters above the ground, straight toward Mayuri.
Thunder Sanctuary began defending.
All four white wings on the black sphere's surface spread open, then crossed and closed in front of it to form a layered barrier.
The tip of Hector's Spear touched the first wing.
It pierced straight through.
The spearhead passed through the center of the white wing, then the second, the third, and the fourth.
All four layers of wing defenses were pierced by that single spear.
After passing through every layer of wings, the spearhead struck the outer shell of Thunder Sanctuary's spherical main body.
Then it bounced off.
Thunder Sanctuary's spherical shell was much harder than its defensive wing layers.
After piercing four layers of wings, Hector's Spear had expended most of its impact and conceptual piercing power. Its remaining force was insufficient to penetrate the main body's shell.
The spear rebounded from the shell's surface, lost its propulsion, and tumbled toward the ground.
The holes in the four white wings began repairing themselves after the spearhead bounced away.
In less than a second, the wings were restored.
Mayuri made a decision in midair.
She could not remain exposed outside.
If Kid Gil took more projectile Noble Phantasms above B-rank from the Gate of Babylon and bombarded her, sooner or later one would bypass Thunder Sanctuary and strike her directly.
Her Astral Dress could reduce damage, but reduced damage was not the same as no damage.
Mayuri approached Thunder Sanctuary's sphere.
Just as when she had faced the King of Conquerors earlier, her Spirit Origin merged with the sphere the instant she touched its surface, and her body sank into Thunder Sanctuary's black sphere.
Once the fusion was complete, Mayuri contacted Tokiomi Tohsaka through their contract.
"Master."
"Archer Gilgamesh intercepted me on my way back. We're currently engaged in combat. Please decide whether I should fight or retreat, Master."